1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for restructuring data in a database.
2. Description of Related Art
Efficient access of data has become increasingly more important due to the expanded information availability from sources such as the Internet. Conventionally, large amounts of data are managed by techniques such as relational databases that provide convenient features for accessing the data. However, such databases require a prior knowledge of the types and number of data to be stored and thus have difficulty accounting for additions to the database of new data and their relationships to existing data that are previously unknown.
Unlike relational databases, semi-structured databases do not require a prior knowledge of the types and attributes of the data to be stored. Unfortunately, techniques for providing efficient access of the data in such databases are inefficient. Thus, there is a need for a technique to organize semi-structured databases so that efficient access to the information in these databases may be provided.